Zandria Munson - The Enemy's Kiss

A flash of humor registered in his eyes. “I do not trust you at my back so I would have it no other way.” He offered her a hand.

With an exasperated sigh she ignored him and gripped the edge of the passage, pulling herself up and inside. Kneeling, she turned and slipped her flashlight from his hand, glaring at him. The light revealed that the passage went on for at least another twenty feet. What lay beyond that she couldn’t tell.

A soft noise behind her told Daniela that Nicholas had joined her in the passage. His huge frame seemed to fill the entire space and she suddenly felt like a caged animal. She’d never been prone to claustrophobia, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she focused on the path ahead and began to crawl forward.

They’d only gone a moderate distance when she felt a cooling draft teasing the stray locks of her hair that had managed to escape the confines of her ponytail. She brought the light up to see a rusty metal fence in front of her. Peering through the bars, she did a quick sweep of the room beyond. It was large and filled with unmarked wooden crates.

“Can you get through the gate?” Nicholas asked from behind her.

She turned the light to the fence, finding that its roots lay imbedded into the wall. “I’ll see.” She set the flashlight down and gripped the bars, applying her full weight against it, but it was in vain. The bars simply wouldn’t budge.

Repositioning slightly, she braced one boot against it and tried again. Flakes of brittle rust cracked away, but as before the bars held firm.

“Allow me to try,” Nicholas offered.

Daniela looked at him then at the space they were allotted. There was no way he was going to get around her. He must’ve realized their dilemma simultaneously for he backed up suddenly.

“Lie on your back,” he told her. “I will climb over you.”

She blinked at him. Could the night get any worse? As if being squeezed into the narrow passage with him wasn’t bad enough, now she would have to endure his very large and hard body sliding over her own. Reluctantly, she complied.

Nicholas moved over her and the heat of his body immediately assailed her as he came to a kneeling position just over her. He leaned forward, increasing her torment as his long hair spilled over his shoulders to tease the sensitive skin of her face. Never had she been this close to a man or in such a compromising position. She hated to admit it, but this pompous man had ignited a fire within her and she wanted nothing more than to stamp it out.

“Cover your eyes,” he told her as he gripped the bars.

With her eyes closed tightly, Daniela could feel the exact moment when the thick corded muscles of his thighs clenched, and seconds later a crumbling noise ensued. Opening her eyes slowly, she cast a look over her head to find that the metal fence had been completely ripped from the wall.

Nicholas had to lean forward a bit more so that he could allow the iron to carefully slide to the floor below. This action brought his face mere inches from her own. His very masculine scent engulfed her, slipping into her nostrils to toy with her imagination.

The metal fence scrapped its way down the wall and landed on the floor with a quiet clank. Nicholas’s eyes met and held her own and he watched her for a few seconds. In this lighting they looked black, but she remembered from their earlier encounter that they were a very transfixing green; the color of the Brazilian rain forest after a fresh rain. His gaze was contemplative as he watched her, assessing almost.

“From this point on you will obey me without question,” he told her quietly. “Is that understood?”

Daniela was silent for a moment. She’d never been inclined to take orders from anyone, and she certainly wasn’t appreciating his demanding nature. But in her present predicament she would have to contend with it. She nodded.

He acknowledged her compliance with a grunt then moved carefully over her and through the exit. Daniela remained motionless for a moment as she regained her composure, then she quickly followed. Nicholas was moving between the crates, scrolling the light over them.

Daniela moved to stand beside him. “I don’t think you’re going to find the rune anywhere in this monastery,” she told him. “These guys are just middlemen. They acquire the items for the buyers and I’m not sure what happens after that, but I don’t think they keep them lying about for too long.”

“You may be correct, but as you say they are middlemen and at present my only connection to the one who has the rune.”

He turned and headed toward a short flight of stone steps that lead to a doorway outlined by a dull orange glow. He gripped the door handle and it turned with ease.

Daniela moved up the steps to join him then waited as he pulled the door open a crack and peered through. He listened for a few seconds and when they were met with quiet, he pulled the door wider. Dull light poured in from the narrow passage that lay beyond. They entered quietly and moved toward another flight of steps. A wooden door stood at the top of the stairway. As before, Nicholas eased it open and they looked through.

They heard muffled voices but no one was within sight. They slipped past the threshold and into a long, wide hall lit by several dangling bulbs. They moved cautiously toward an archway that was aglow with a light from a lower floor.

Daniela matched Nicholas’s pace, staying close, but never advancing ahead. Oddly, she didn’t feel any fear. There was just something about the man that gave her a sense of reassurance. She wasn’t sure if it was the confidence in his stride, the way he held his crossbow at his side—subtly poised for anything—or his tall and powerful frame. Whatever the reason, it was certainly an odd feeling for her. Never had she met a man who made her feel anything remotely close to security.

They passed through the archway and found themselves on the second floor of the main hall. The upper level was lined with a banister while the foyer below was crowded with wooden crates and barrels. Five men moved about, stacking the crates and rolling the barrels to one side.

Nicholas assumed an immediate crouching position and Daniela followed suit. Concealed within the shadows and behind the wooden posts of the banister, they observed the scene below. The men spoke with British accents and Daniela recognized one of them immediately. Tall and with a gangly frame, she knew him only by his nickname, Cradle. She’d done business with him a few times, actually delivering the first rune to him a few days ago. And it was to him that she was expected to deliver the second.

“That’s him,” she told Nicholas. “He’s the one I gave the rune to.”

He fixed the man with a lethal look. “So it is possible that the rune is here?”

Daniela didn’t like the look on his face. It seemed he contemplated a confrontation. Between him with his antique weapon and her with her butter knife, the chances of victory were positively slim.

“No,” she tried to dissuade. “I told you before that these guys are just middlemen. I doubt they hold on to the items for very long.”

“He was given the rune. If it is not in his possession he will know where it is.” With that he slid forward a few feet.

Daniela watched him incredulously. There was no way he could confront Cradle without alerting the others. And doing that would only lead to his death—or worse.

She cast a glance over her shoulder. It was time for her to make an exit. Nicholas had her cell phone and could possibly use it to learn her identity, but if she managed to get out of there she could contact Mai and have her cancel her cellular account. Attempting an escape was better than remaining here to face a certain death. Even if Nicholas didn’t make it out of there, her life was still at risk because her cell phone remained in his pocket, which she was sure Cradle and his comrades would search.